Cadu Martins

Last night I was wondering: if I were able to create my own country, what would it be like and what kind of laws would it have? So, instead of sleeping, I spent the whole night creating a constitution for my hypothetical country, because that's what a nerd like me would do. For my country, I imagined a small city-state, the size of an island, because smaller countries are easier to administer. I decided that it would be a parliamentary constitutional monarchy, because in my opinion this is the best kind of government that exists; it mixes the democracy of a republic with the stability of a monarchy, so it has the best of both worlds. For the name, I decided to call my country Martinia, inspired by the Latin name Martinus, which is the origin of my surname. So without further ado, behold the Constitution of the Kingdom of Martinia: Preamble King Carlos of Martinia, desiring to establish Justice and secure Freedom for all His subjects, does hereby proclaim and establish this Constitu...

Recently, I was rejected by a woman based on the fact that I'm not religious enough for her. It was not the first time this happened, and not even the second; getting rejected because of religion is basically a hobby of mine at this point. What bothers me the most is that my conversations with this woman were very good until the moment I mentioned that I'm not religious; then everything turned to shit. This got me thinking about religion as a whole and how religion makes people behave in strange ways. Religion was supposed to teach people how to be more humble and tolerant. Yet, some of the most arrogant and intolerant people out there are religious. How can that be? When people go to church for the first time, the church welcomes them with open arms, regardless of their background. This is a good thing because no matter how many mistakes a person made in the past, it's never too late to repent and try to become a better person. In the beginning, that's exactly what hap...

What stops us from doing what we want to do? The answer is nothing. The problem is that we tend to blame things, like not having enough money or not having enough time, yet both of those things are abstract. Money has only the value that we put on it, and all the things that we can buy with money are worth whatever we say they are. That being said, everything related to money is merely part of an abstract concept. We can say the same about time, because even though time was not a human invention, the way we define time is. The days of the week, for instance, are all made up, and so are the months of the year. I'm not saying that it's a bad thing that the economy and the calendar exist; without these things, our society would be even more chaotic than it already is. I'm saying that we shouldn't let these abstract things control our lives the way most people do. For example, many people say that they want to travel but they don't have enough money to do so. But that...

After that date, which I consider a failure, we kept in contact for a few more days, but then she suddenly stopped answering my messages. Eventually, I also stopped sending them. I figured there was no point in persisting; her mind was obviously somewhere else. After all, I knew she could be quite depressed sometimes. But I kept thinking about her and all that went wrong. For me, it was just a matter of giving it another try, but I believe things weren't so simple in her head. A couple of months passed, bringing us into 2021. Around January 6th, the spirit of new beginnings that comes with every new year inspired me to send her another message. But, of course, it was for nothing; she didn't answer once again. I was very disappointed. I was eager to invite her for a second date, but I couldn't do that if she still refused to talk to me. Months went by, and eventually, she was not even receiving my messages anymore, and I was starting to get a little worried about her. So I d...

The trouble with Hopi Hari was that it was extremely far from where we lived. But I had planned everything: I bought bus tickets to the park and back, and also our tickets for the park itself. We decided to meet at the subway, and from there we would go to the bus station. Everybody had to wear masks back then because of the pandemic, so I was worried that we would not recognize each other. When I arrived at the subway station, she was already there. I recognised her instantly—maybe it was because of her figure, or because of her eyes, perhaps both. The only thing that was different was her hair: she had cut it very short. I admit it was a bit of a disappointment for me, as I loved her long hair, but that alone wasn't going to stop me from liking her. The first thing I did was hug her, which is something I think I had never done before. We talked all the way there, and it felt like nothing was real; I couldn't make myself believe that any of it was actually happening. When we a...

Six years later, I was 18 years old. It was my first time living on my own, and I had just broken up with a girlfriend I had at the time. I don't quite remember how, but I stumbled upon Giovanna on the internet one more time. We began talking again, and the feelings I had for her came back to me, as if nothing had ever changed. But the problem was, everything had changed: she had a boyfriend now, and I was living in another state. Even so, I got her number and we continued talking as friends. She was still that amazing person she had always been, and I loved the opportunity to talk to her again; our conversations were always engaging. Another two years passed, and this time the scenario was a bit different. I was living in the state of São Paulo again, and during one of our occasional talks, Giovanna told me her relationship had come to an end. I admit that, on the inside, I was a little excited, but I didn't want to seem insensitive, and I also wanted to give her some time to ...

As the days passed, it was finally time to go back home. I was a little sad that my school vacation was coming to an end and wanted to stay in that magical place forever, but at the same time, I was also a bit excited to talk to Giovanna in person. The trip back also took two days, and I wasn't a fan of staying so long inside a warm car with nothing to do. Even with the stop in Belo Horizonte, it felt like torture. But eventually, I was back in São Paulo. Soon enough, I was back at school again. I didn't like it much, to be honest, as people that age hardly do, but it was much better than staying home with my father. I waited patiently for Giovanna, and when she arrived, I went to talk to her. But this was different from talking on the internet; I was actually nervous. I knew it was normal to feel nervous when talking to beautiful girls, but Giovanna wasn't even that pretty, at least not in the traditional sense. Some would even say that she was ugly. However, I knew that s...

One morning, I woke up to find that none of my friends were available to play, so I went to the local internet café. As soon as I logged into my Facebook account, I noticed a new friend request. The profile name was "Batata Frita", which is Portuguese for "French Fries", and the picture was of a girl, but only from the neck down. She was wearing a red plaid shirt, and you could see her long hair falling over her shoulders. Even though I didn't know her, I was intrigued and decided to accept the request. A few minutes later, she sent me a message saying hello. I replied, and we quickly fell into conversation. I don't remember much about the beginning of our chat, but I recall asking her age and, to my surprise, she was almost the same age as me. We ended up talking about school and our plans for the future, and I realized that she was a very smart person. At one point, she mentioned that she wanted to study astronomy when she was older, and I was stunned beca...

Today, I've decided to tell you a story. It all started in 2013, when I was 12 years old. Back then, my aunt had a tradition of traveling to Minas Gerais every year to visit family. She always went in July because that's when her daughter—my cousin—was on school break. This time, however, she decided to invite me along, and with my father's permission, I accepted. I was incredibly excited about the trip, as I had never traveled to another state before. My mother's entire family came from a little village called Vargem Grande, located in the far north of the state. The trip there from São Paulo took two full days, and we stopped halfway to rest. The halfway point was the state capital, Belo Horizonte, where we stayed the night with an uncle who lived there. I remember my favorite part was playing on his son's PlayStation 3; after all, I was just a kid and had never seen such a modern video game console before. The next morning, we were back on the road, and about 12 ...

For centuries, people have been fighting for their rights and their dignity, but have they accomplished anything? When you take some time to think about what has changed, you will realize that we actually haven't made much progress, and all that we have gotten is a better illusion. For example, we got rid of slavery more than a century ago, yet we still have people who work extensive hours for a salary that's not enough to pay for the most basic things. What is that if not a new type of slavery? Today, some people are committing suicide because they have to work every day of the week and their debts are still greater than their paycheck. Every human needs a place to sleep, food to eat, and water to drink. These are the basic things we need to survive, yet all of them cost money. If you can't pay for them, nobody cares. In some countries, these things are cheap, which makes sense, but in other countries, basic resources are as valuable as gold. So, we can conclude that all t...